Splitting Hairs

So the defense of Karl Rove, insofar as anyone is even trying to mount one instead of just sidestepping the whole issue, seems to be that he may have talked to a reporter about Valerie Plame's job in the CIA, but did not actually use the word "Valerie." Instead, he referred to her as "Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues," Wilson being Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

The key to so many good plots is to never actually lie about it. The present administration is great at that. Those famous 16 words in the State of the Union address that were at the bottom of this whole flap were not actually false, either (it was quite true that the British had the information--no one ever said the information was right). If everything that has been reported about Rove's involvement this far is true, he still was telling the truth when he said he did not leak her name. He left it to others to assume that meant he had not leaked her identity. All he revealed was to whom she was married. Would some of those Defense of Marriage advocates remind me again how many wives a man can legally have in the United States? Also, marriage licenses are one of those things that the administration hasn't quite gotten around to classifying yet, so the record of who Ambassador Wilson's wife is should be more or less a matter of public record, even if her job wasn't. Splitting that hair is for another time.